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Summary: Great Story, Hard to Put down
Review: I truly enjoyed this first book in the Tales of the Otori. The story pulled me in and wouldn't let me go until I finished it in a relatively short time. I immediately started the second in the series and have just pre-ordered the third. It was enjoyable, engrossing and I thought the pacing of the story to be nearly perfect.
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Summary: Elegant and to the point
Review: Just finished the book last night. I liked it a lot. There is a lot to be said for being able to write a coherent story and have strong characters who evolve before you and not spend 600 pages doing it. However, my own personal taste is to immerse myself in the world that I'm reading. I like a lot of detail. This book, by its simple length, couldn't offer that, so if you're looking for world-building, look elsewhere. This is about the characters and only the characters. In some markets, it is being billed as YA. I think that is clearly wrong. It was too gritty with too much violence. The author didn't pull any punches about how gruesome life in feudal Japan or a Japan-like nation would have been for the vast majority of people. Or the flaws of cruelty and brutality that infused the samurai. And of course, the temporary place of women, who lived at the whim of their masters, the men.
All in all, a fine read.
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Summary: Awesome fantasy
Review: I really enjoyed this book and it was hard to put down. I finished it in no time and still wanted more. Wonderful imagination, Mr. Hearn. My son read the first two books of the trilogy as well and we are anxiously awaiting the 3rd installment. I hope it just gets better.
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Summary: as strong as steel and sharp as an assasin's dagger
Review: The true life of the ancient Japanese people with a fictional twist
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Summary: like a Japanese garden
Review: Like a Japanese garden, wordscape precisely positioned and pruned.(a very good read)
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Summary: A wonderful read!
Review: Despite all of the reviews, this book is not set in Japan...at least according to the author, who says that it is an imaginary country, in which some echoes of Japanese customs are found. Whatever! This is a wonderful first book in a trilogy, and if the second is half as good, I'll do cartwheels. Buy this and read it!!!!!
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Summary: A Fine and Fantastic Tale Set in a Reimagined Japan
Review: Nicely done and fast moving, this tale conjures up an imaginary medieval Japanese world that is both convincing and absorbing . . . even if it never really existed. Recounting the coming of age of young Tomasu, renamed Takeo by his heroic protector Otori Shigeru, it takes our young hero from the idyllic life of a secret religious cult hidden deep in the mountains, a group eerily reminiscent of early Japanese Christians, into a much larger world of samurai, assassins, and political intrigue as Takeo discovers his special talents, the legacy of a mysterious father. Induced to develop his skills as a tool for his mentor, the kindly if stern Shigeru, young Takeo learns to control his special abilities and to love the samurai Otori clan which has adopted him. But the world is quaking all around him as his deadly enemy, the warlord Iida, closes a trap designed to complete his conquest of the three lands. Only Shigeru and his allies stand in Iida's way, but Iida forces Shigeru to step into a deadly trap. Joined by Takeo, Shigeru advances with eyes open into the jaws of Iida's waiting lion, all the while planning the enemy warlord's undoing. But there are other claims on Takeo, claims which may yank him away from Shigeru at the moment he's most needed. The story was a bit predicable but compelling nonetheless, even when you can guess where the next turn will be. At the same time, the ambience of old Japan felt remarkably right. As Takeo struggles with the need to avenge the slaughter of his own clan (the mysterious group known as the Hidden) by Iida's minions, and the demands on his loyalty from his newly adopted clan (the Otori) vs. his blood ties to the mysterious Tribe (a group of families with special, almost magical skills), he must make a decision to risk all and save Shigeru and the young woman he has come to love or accept the Tribe's apparently unreasonable demands on him. Although the final outcome is never in much doubt, how we get there is. And it's fascinating to watch it all unfold. In the end, this is an action tale set in an exotic world . . . nothing more. But it is enjoyable for that. SWM
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Summary: The Kind Assassin
Review: In some ways this is the typical fantasy coming-of-age story: a youth leaves his home and we spend the rest of the book seeing his heroism and special abilities develop through adversity, loss and a realization of the implications of power. However, it is much more than that. Takeo, the youth, is born into a secret society of religious pacifists called the Hidden. When a local warlord decides to exterminate this cult, Takeo loses all his family and is almost killed himself in a village raid, being saved in the end by a noble: Lord Otori. It seems that Lord Otori recognizes certain traits in Takeo that are indicative of special abilities, and is seeking an instrument of revenge against a rival warlord. Though Lord Otori is benevolent, he intends to make Takeo that weapon. The character development lies in Takeo's struggle to reconcile his innate kindness and regard for life with the demands placed upon him by his skills. For, in this world, those marked with his skills are drafted into a secret organization called the Tribe, which provides spying and assassinations for rival factions. Revealing further plot elements would take away some of the appeal of this book, so I'll leave it there. The setting is a fantasy version of medieval Japan. Most of the inhabitants of this world are average people, but a few have mythical preternatural skills. This book is rich, creates great sympathy for the protagonist and is an exciting and interesting read, with many of the elements of classical literature. Altogether, I highly recommend this well-written and beautiful book.
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Summary: Fantasy/Suspense in Japan-like setting
Review: Across the Nightingale Floor is a well-paced and orchestrated historical fantasy set in an imaginary feudal Japan-like setting.
Teenage Tomasu lives in a remote mountain village among a people called "The Hidden" who are a secretive and persecuted caste. One night his village is massacred by the chief warlord, Iida. Tomasu pulls a trick and escapes into the mountains and is saved by another warrior lord, Otori Shigeru. Otori takes Tomasu in as his son, renames him Takeo, and the young man begins to learn the way of the warrior. It soon becomes apparent that he possesses the skills of the assassin class known as "The Tribe" which include superior hearing, stealth, invisibility and the ability to leave a "second self" behind. Later, he learns to put people to sleep.
Meanwhile, a second plot told in the third person involves Kaede, a young woman who is the daughter of a lord but held hostage to keep her family from considering an uprising. The warlords are to use Kaede as a pawn in an arranged marriage with Otori. Things get complicated because of a certain Lady Maruyama, and then Takeo's feelings toward Kaede. A little Shakespearean tragedy within a Japanese setting makes for plenty of intrigue.
Takeo makes an interesting and likable protagonist, and I found myself cheering for him and all the challenges he had to face. The side characters were also colorful, with heroic Otori Shigeru, the mysterious teacher Kenji, the doomed Lady Maruyama, jinxed Kaede, and more. You know some of them will play larger roles in the following two books.
I wondered about this book being a young adult novel, because while the language and sentence construction read fairly simply, there is graphic violence and some sex that should be for a more mature audience. The dialogue was sometimes stilted and overly formal, but that's the way it is in Japan, and for the most part Hearn makes this work. I also liked the author's choice of pseudonym, presumably after the great Japan historian Lafcadio Hearn.
I came away wanting to know more about The Hidden and The Tribe, and hope the subsequent books reveal more, because I'm eager to continue this series. I thought the first book came to a satisfying resolution, while setting us up for things to come. Across the Nightingale Floor is an enjoyable read and definitely for those interested in Japan.
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Summary: SWASHBUCKLING IN JAPAN
Review: Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Otori Trilogy which is set in a world much like that of Japan in the middle ages. Aristocratic warrior clans vie for control of territories through war and by paying for the services of The Tribe, a band of ninja-like assassins with magical powers that have their own concealed interest in who rules. One leader, Lord Iida plans to take over all the different lands and unite them under his rule of tyranny and fear. One group he particularly hates is a clan called The Hidden. Ironically, this is a clan of pacifists who are against war and the taking of life. Iida sets out to exterminate them, putting to death all those he finds. The 16 year old Takeo, a young man of the Hidden, comes back from a day of wandering among the mountains to find his whole village has been executed by Iida and his men. After an escape that dishonors Iida, Takeo runs into a man who also has cause to want revenge on him, the mysterious Lord Shigeru. Shigeru was defeated years earlier by Iida and treachery and vows to protect Takeo and even adopt him. In a weird turn of events it turns out that Takeo has some of the skills of the Tribe. The question is not if, but when he will use them to try to kill Iida? And is Shigeru operating from a urge to protect him or is he just using Takeo as a pawn? This book was great. For some reason when I read the reviews for it a long time ago I was under the impression that it was a young adult book but it's definately not that. There's doses of graphic blood and snatches of sex. What we have here is an example of literary fantasy that I would compare to the Lord of the Rings in that the author is trying to write something serious and not just entertain, even though he does that too. The author, by the way, is unknown. Lian Hearn is a pseudonym. Hearn, I am sure comes from Lafcadio Hearn, a Western writer who wrote many tales about Japan. This book was beautiful. There are relationships aplenty after the book starts up, love stories, I mean, which form subplots to the revenge story. I was fixing to write that you got a feel for the politics of the middle ages reading this book, but actually those policies continue to this day. People are still killed by leaders for their beliefs. Leaders of countries hold grudges and take revenge on other countries, be it political or military. I just ordered the second book, Grass For His Pillow. The third book comes out later this year. If you like this book, I would recommend any Samurai movie by Akira Kurosawa, also Samurai I,II, and III directed by Jiroshi Inagaki, all starring Toshiro Mifune.
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